More than 30 years after beginning his career in sports broadcasting, Broncos Ring of Famer Tom Jackson saw his hard work receive its due recognition with the 2015 Pete Rozelle Award given to him on Saturday night during the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s enshrinement ceremony.

Von Miller has had his own missteps off the field, but they were nowhere near as serious as those of Aldon Smith, and more importantly, he’s moved on from those mistakes. Another TYJE may be in order here.

Arian Foster, 28, has spent his entire public football career — in college at Tennessee, in the NFL with the Texans — in the Bible Belt. Playing in the sport that most closely aligns itself with religion, in which God and country are both industry and packaging, in which the pregame flyover blends with the postgame prayer, Foster does not believe in God.

“Everybody always says the same thing: You have to have faith,” he says. “That’s my whole thing: Faith isn’t enough for me. For people who are struggling with that, they’re nervous about telling their families or afraid of the backlash … man, don’t be afraid to be you. I was, for years.”

As a lifelong atheist who has never experienced any negativity for my own lack of belief in any supernatural power, I sometimes feel that the plight of the irreligious pales in comparison to other disadvantaged groups out there. But clearly NFL locker rooms are a different animal. We should all know that well having experienced the presence of the likes of Brian Dawkins and Tim Tebow on the 2011 Broncos.

The entire article is a longread, but I recommend taking the time if it piques your interest.

With the propriety of Tom Brady’s DeflateGate suspension now set to be resolved in court and many of those in and around the sport expressing the view that the NFL’s system of justice is broken, the players’ union is vowing to address Commissioner Roger Goodell’s power to hear appeals in certain player-disciplinary cases in the next set of labor negotiations.

“It would be hard to imagine any new deal if there’s not a change,” Eric Winston, the veteran offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals who is the president of the NFL Players Association, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I can’t imagine taking a new deal back to the players and say personal conduct isn’t going to change.”

I never got around to writing a full article on this, but Winston is correct. As the old saying goes, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Achieving separation of powers in disciplinary matters should be a primary goal for the NFLPA in the future. However, don’t expect the owners’ official representative, of all people, to give that up without a fight. Come 2021, I fear there will be a very lengthy work stoppage that will include regular season games.

Here we are, Bronco fans. Five days of training camp already finished and we are a little more than a week away from the preseason opener against Seattle.

As somebody stuck in Kansas, I’m unable to actually go to training camp in person and will have to find other ways to watch Broncos games on certain weeks. But based on what I’ve read coming out of training camp thus far, there are a few observations I can make on what one might expect from the preseason opener.Continue reading Midweek Musings: Five Days of Training Camp Done

Occasionally, there may be some fun football facts that cross my mind that I feel deserve a quick mention somewhere. Here are some that have been in my head for a while, and that I finally took the time to investigate further.

That, as the title suggests, is how top heavy the AFC has been for the past 20 seasons. During that time, just five teams (about one third of the conference) have dominated. Good news, the Broncos are one of those teams! The other four are the Steelers, Patriots, Ravens, and Colts.

Hey, Bronco fans. Training camp is just around the corner and I’m sure everyone is excited. I’ll keep my thoughts brief this week because most of the items that everyone is talking about are subjects we’ve gone over several times.

1. As I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t hurt to bring in Jake Long to see if he’s healthy and can contribute, but I would be careful not to get my hopes up. I can’t see the Broncos offering anything more than a $2M deal loaded with incentives, likely based on how many games he starts, and who knows what another team might offer if they think he can help. Ideally, he’d be healthy, willing to sign and can fill in at left tackle for a year while Ty Sambrailo develops. But I’m not counting heavily on that.Continue reading Midweek Musings: Last Thoughts Before Training Camp

Why didn’t the Broncos do this earlier? Based on Vacchiano’s report, it was because teams weren’t convinced Long had fully recovered from his latest injury last October. Keep in mind that Long has twice torn the ACL in his right knee in the past two seasons, so it isn’t a sure thing that he’d be an upgrade over current Bronco linemen.

ETA: Andrew Mason has a friendly reminder.

Health is the biggest reason why Jake Long is still unsigned. He hasn't played all 16 games since 2010 & has missed 16 games since 2011.